By ‘sweet tea,’ we mean ‘sweet.’ As one food technologist told me, some of the sweetest glasses can hit 22 Brix of sugar. That means that 22 percent of the liquid consists of dissolved sugar solids, or, to put it in more meaningful terms: close to twice what you'd find in a can of Coke.

When it comes to foodstuffs, there aren't too many things I miss more than sweet tea (especially my grandma's). Other ‘staples’ I've been denied since moving from Florida to California include Chik-fil-a chicken sandwiches, Waffle House waffles, and fried okra.